My Mother-In-Law wants suggestions for perennials she can plant now that need full sun, grow about 12 to l8" tall, bloom all season and have a bright colors. They'll be planted in the ground in front of a raised vegetable garden that's about 2' tall. She wants me to plant them now. (I hope Lowe's carries them). If you can give me a list, I'm sure she can pick out a few. Is that a tall order? Thanks.
Jan
What perennials can I plant now?
What season would she like them to bloom? Not many perennials bloom from spring till frost.
Hi Jan. There are some great veronicas in various heights with a long bloom season; my 'Icicle' and 'Sunny Border Blue' seem to never stop blooming. Salvias, like 'May Night' and maybe 'Blue Hill' bloom all summer to. Gailardia (Blanket flower) is very tough and repeat blooming, as well as some of the short daylilies. Some of the thread-leaf coriopsis would work well for her, like 'Moonbeam'. I would recommend adding some spring bulbs to start the show off, since most of the summer perennials won't start blooming till late spring.
This is a great time to consistantly check Lowes clearance sales. I'm finding lots of 1gallon perennials reduced to $1. Good luck, Neal.
Here is Moonbeam Coreopsis
and Salvia May Night with a tiny bit of Moonbeam showing in behind. Not a really good phto but the yellow and purple blooms are nice together.
What about some short rebloomer daylilies (with the salvia and coreopsis)...do they count as perennials?
They're edible, too!
I agree with all the suggestions above plus a few clumps, up against the raised bed, of daffodils, tulips, hyacinths. Their dying foliage would be covered by the daylilies and the other excellent choices of perennials. A clump or two of irises toward the rear would be nice, too.
How deep will the bed be? Front to back is what I'm asking.
Hi everybody! I was gone a few days. I've written down over a dozen names of flowers now. I didn't know there would be so many. Last Sunday I showed her some of them and she didn't recognize any of the names. Not a surprise. Most elderly people only know regional nicknames anyway. I'll find pictures of these and print them for her. The flower bed extends only about 18" to 2' away from the raised planter. She really needs stuff for full sun, too. I liked the blanket flower suggestion because of the color. The planter sits in the middle of her yard (big yard) and the color would show up. I wish she'd put lots of geraniums there, myself. She just doesn't remember to water regularly, so anything would have to be able to withstand a lack of water once in awhile.
Geraniums, or more correctly pelargoniums, can take neglect but they can't survive damp conditions. We're talking about the common red, white, perhaps lavender ones, just to make it clear. The big heads of red and white would show up very nicely - I agree with you.
Pelargoniums are so popular as a summer flower in Ohio, but I don't think they would come back next year in this climate where we are....I suppose you could winter over some pots in the garage...that works for some...
I am trying to figure out how to winter over my lantana/verbenas...they would be fun for your plan, too, but not perennial here generally...
I have a friend who overwinters his pelargoniums just like the rest of his tender bulbs. He just digs them up, shakes some dirt off, and stores them dry in the house. In spring he just plants them and trims them back and they recover in no time. I wonder if something like that would work for lantana. Mine are so pretty, I'd love to save them. And speaking of lantana on this grass thread, here's lantana with Tropicana canas and a red annual grass that was given to me. Anyone know if the grass is truly annual or just tender? I'd love to overwinter that to. Neal.
I put the pots of pelargoniums out in springtime and put them in a sunny window for winter and they do fine. Water every two to three weeks but not a lot. You do NOT want the water running out the bottom. Start feeding in March and by mid to late May you can put them back out, sinking the pots: they love being rootbound.
She does like geraniums. and I'll be willing to plant them for her every spring to make them look like perennials. I don't think she would even try to overwinter them. If she heard me say pelargonium, she'd roll her eyes at me. I didn't know there were more colors then red, honestly. I'll suggest to her that she get red and white. That would be really nice. Thanks. She's coming over here today for me to wash her car for her. I'll tell her about it.
What a nice daughter-in-law YOU are!
Do you think she would like johnny jump ups (violas) and maybe ornamental kale? These are cool bloomers, late season, look nice with marigolds, which are also pretty sturdy and may even reseed.
Thanks for calling me nice, pirl, but she pays me $5.00 to wash her car. It's a funny story. She paid $10 a week for just a car wash (not even windows) (that's a rip-off) and wanted to know if I would do her car for her if she paid me. I told her I would do it but she didn't have to pay me. I detail cars for my husbands car lot, and she went to him because she really wanted me to do it. He said I should accept some kind of money from her to make her feel good, so I said I would wash her car for $2.00. She got mad and insisted I take $5.00. I feel kinda weird when I take the $5.00, but she won't have it any other way.
PrairieGirl, I'm getting some Ornamental Cabbage and Kale both for my driveway this fall. I love it! But she doesn't. She's had marigolds before and liked them, too. If she doesn't like the geranium suggestion, she could mix marigolds with blanket flowers. I forgot to talk to her about flowers yesterday. She wanted to talk about Jim. My neighbor had some really soft yellow marigolds a couple of years ago and they really looked nice across the front of his house. I think they would look great with the blanket flowers. I think I'm getting closer to making up my mind for her. Maybe I'll plant what I want instead of what she wants and then somehow convince her it was her idea.
I've never had any luck wintering geraniums over. I tried the trick of shaking off all the dirt, etc., planting again in the spring--didn't work for me. I just get new ones every year. They are so darned expensive around here that I didn't buy any this year and I really missed them.
Why can't you cut them back, bring them in to a sunny window, don't feed until February and water once every three weeks? We've had some for about 10 years now.
See, pirl? That's why I want to live next door. I'll try that next year. I love them and have really missed them this year.
You're too funny!
Neal, the Pennisetum 'Rubrum' you have in your photo is an annual grass for us. I have never tried to overwinter it though. In the Plant Files, there are several notes from other members but no one states that they have successfully overwintered it in your zone. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1491/index.html
I once had a potted geranium that I just never dumped from the pot once winter came. The pot got moved up by the house, in a fairly protected corner on the east side of our house, and when spring came, imagine my shock when that geranium was ALIVE! I put it in the ground that summer, and it was beautiful. If I'd actually planned that, it wouldn't have happened. LOL.
It's happened to me, too! I forgot to dig it out of the brick planter boxes that abut the house and all of a sudden it was sitting there in bloom!
They are best off planted in their pots. They love being rootbound. It's how I always do it since I found it out on a radio gardening show.
Here is a great way to winter over Geraniums. It's so easy. Break the fat part of the stem off, you will get a few good pieces off of each plant. Dip the stem in root stimulator (ace hardware store). In each pot, put half peat moss and half sand. Just stick that stem right into the mix of peat and sand. Water every day for about 1 week. Put them in a window. I have a walkout basement window that I put them in front of. Water about once a week during the winter. You will have leaves dry out and they might look half dead, but they aren't. When the weather warms up, plant them outside. You won't believe what HUGE Geraniums you will have. It's amazing.
OK crystalnurse. Between you and pirl I am determined to give them a shot next year.
You say they like to be rootbound. I've always planted mine in mixed containers. That's OK, right? I love the color combinations of pink geraniums and purple petunias for instance, or red geraniums and white something or others.
Plant the geranium in it's pot, in with the petunias and just remove it at the end of summer. I do it all the time.
Okie, dokie. I thought anything that looks that good should be OK. ;^)
I never liked pot Geraniums. I thought, why plant THOSE when there are all those crazy, interesting plants out there?
Well, last year they were so ridiculously cheap, and my MIL was getting some. I can't resist a bargain, and I was feeling competitive, so I bought some.
There is a reason why you see them in pictures of Italian and Provencal cottages! It's because you can give them literally no water! This year I hung some on my daughter's swingset, put pots on my hot killer deck, and along the side of the house down the driveway. I never watered the ones on my daughter's swingset except when we were in the worst of the drought. They were fantastic! The Verbena died in about 2 weeks, but I've still got beautiful Pelargoniums going strong.
They are now my favorite plant!
One question: can I overwinter my Mandevilla the same way as the Pelargoniums?
Do you mean that with no water, your geraniums didn't get leggy and sparse looking? The reason I never bother with them is that the ones I've seen always look terrible. What is the secret to great looking geraniums?
Yes, you can overwinter your Mandevilla. Cut it back to about a foot tall and keep it very lightly watered through the winter in a sunny window.
Pins: I cut mine back DRASTICALLY before putting them out and push the cutting (tip cuttings ONLY) in the same pot but after I've left them out to dry up for a day or two and then a callous forms and they're ready for the soil. You can whack back 1/4 of the plant at a time and just keep it turned so you see the best side. Another week or two and another whack, etc. Mine do great!
Thanks, Pirl. The Mandevilla are just now getting big enough that I get more than one flower at a time. I didn't want to just let them freeze.
If you whack back the Pelargoniums in summer, do they come back with bigger blossoms?
At least as big as they were to start with, no larger than that. Half strength MiracleGro, made with tepid water, starting in late February, early March, helps with the spring growth and once they're outside I almost never feed them.
Really good information. I'm so glad that you are sharing all this.
I just found the MiracleGro on our indoor porch and can attest to the fact that they have not been fed since April. I feed them a bit early, February through April.
shasta daisies love full sun and bloom almost all season and spread very nicely.
I'm glad to hear about the Shastas, because I scored five from my neighbor who grew hers from seed and then got tired of taking care of them.
I stuck them in the ground in about June or July and they did better than any thing else I've got. Two are about 4-6 inches tall now, and the other three are 3 to 4 inches. I hope they grow to the same size next year- they are edging a bed on the top of a retaining wall. They sit in the little pockets created by the stones butting up next to each other. I needed something kind of tough for that area, and I thought the Shastas might do well there.
Maybe they'll be like the Echinacea here. They're a few inches tall by the end of fall (first season) and then they grow up the following spring and summer. It should look wonderful with the stones! Send photos when they bloom, please!